[NAGDU] Article about serious blind hiker
Caitlyn Furness
caitlyn.furness at gmail.com
Fri Apr 15 16:22:40 UTC 2016
Why??
What’s so special about this Governor guy and what happened?
Cait
> On Apr 14, 2016, at 4:36 PM, Star Gazer via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Thanks to former Governor Sanford, I now
> chuckle when "hikin the Appolotian Trail" is discussed.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dan Weiner via
> NAGDU
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2016 4:16 PM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Dan Weiner <dcwein at dcwein.cnc.net>
> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Article about serious blind hiker
>
> Hmmm, I honestly have problems believing stories like this, but if it is
> accurate and true then more power tto him--smile when Usually it ends up
> they got a lot more help than they admit or they haveususable vision and so
> on.
> people start telling me how their dogs identify products at the tore I tart
> loosing my ability to believe, , but then again it could be the reporter.
> And I'm glad he was at least honest about all the preparation time and
> coordination with his hiking advisor, so many people who do things like that
> like to present them as if they never got help at all. When I was a kid and
> heard those stories I would feel like crap because I thought "my god I'd
> never be able to do those things". Then I met people who did seemingly
> incredible things and one or two of them were actually honest with me about
> how they did things and I realized you tackle challenges one step at a time
> and using adaptive techniques rather than just starting out with no planning
> and preparation and help and doing all this stuff.
>
> In other words, people who accomplish things, blind or sighted, don't just
> spring out of Zeus's head like the goddess Athena fully formed as it were,
> there is work, preparation, and if you're blind adaptive techniques and so
> on.
>
> I'm afraid hiking like that wouldn't be for me, but taking long walks, sure.
> And let's see, soon he'll write a book and all the sighted folks will say
> how amazing it is...meanwhile the next person who applies for a job will be
> turned down. Funny, blind people can do all sorts of stuff, but no one says
> "hey, I heard a blind guy hikes the Appalachian trail so therefore a job at
> our bank I'm sure will be no problem for a blind person like you"--lol
>
>
> Anyway, sounds like I'm grousing, but I'm not, just giving my honest
> thoughts.
>
> My word, that must be a special dog 10 to 15 miles a day to keep the dog in
> shape--smile.
> Furthest I waked myself at once was I think five miles, but then again I
> never really kept track--smile. When I've been in more urban environements
> or on bike paths maybe I walked more, have no idea.
>
>
> Good wishes to all no matter where you walk and how far.
>
> Dan the mman, Parker the nut
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Caitlyn Furness
> via NAGDU
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2016 3:43 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Cc: Caitlyn Furness
> Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Article about serious blind hiker
>
> Tracey,
>
> thanks so much for sending this article along!!
>
> I found it interesting, though, that the guide dog schools turned him down
> at first. Bill Irwin was a seeing eye grad and hiked the AT years ago.
>
> Cait
>
>> On Apr 14, 2016, at 2:49 PM, Tracy Carcione via NAGDU
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> This is an article from AFB Access World about a blind hiker and his
>> guide dog.
>>
>> Tracy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> The Hiker and Tennille: Trevor Thomas on The Trail
>>
>>
>> Deborah Kendrick
>>
>> When Trevor Thomas lost his sight 10 years ago, he heard a lot about
>> all the things he could no longer do. Most of those "can'ts" involved
>> the activities he had loved best all his life.
>>
>> Since boyhood, Thomas had immersed himself in what he calls extreme
> sports.
>> At age 3, he started skiing. Over time, his activity dance card
>> included hiking, mountain biking, racing Porsches, sky diving, and
>> more. Sometimes, he pursued the sports he loved in the company of
>> others, sometimes not. The constant was his love of risk-taking and
>> testing limits, particularly the limit of his own physical endurance.
>>
>> Then, a rare autoimmune disease changed the game. Overnight, he was
>> significantly visually impaired. At the end of eight months, he was
>> totally blind.
>>
>> He had finished law school with the dismaying albeit crystal clear
>> recognition that he had no desire to practice law. He had embarked on
>> that educational journey with a fascination for our legal system, but
>> finished his law school education with a certain disdain for corporate
>> practices and billable hours.
>>
>> "I never took the bar exam," he explains. "And I never will."
>>
>> He had lost his sight, lost interest in the career path that had taken
>> years of study to complete, and now had naysayers apprising him of his
>> new options, which ranged from limited to nonexistent. A blind guy,
>> ran the conventional wisdom, could forget about all those outdoor
>> sports
> activities.
>>
>>
>> Telling the Story with Miles
>>
>>
>> Some 20,000 miles later, those who believed Trevor Thomas was no
>> longer a hiker were obviously mistaken. Since losing his sight, he has
>> hiked more than 20,000 miles, including all 2,175 miles of the
>> Appalachian Trail and the 3,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail.
>> Before losing his sight, he says he was barely a recreational hiker,
>> camping in the back country for a weekend here or there. Today, the
>> shorter spells are the ones he spends off the trail.
>>
>> The first several thousand miles Trevor Thomas hiked with a sighted
> partner.
>> But his partner failed to show one day in Colorado, and the idea of
>> getting a guide dog began to take shape. If he intended to continue
>> rigorous long distance hiking and intended not to turn over the
>> control of when and where he could do that hiking, Trevor concluded
>> that a trained guide dog was the only reasonable solution. He needed
>> eyes to see what lay ahead on unpredictable trails, and his own eyes
> weren't working.
>>
>> His background in corporate sales gave him plenty of confidence and
>> conversation so, thinking it was a matter of signing up, he picked up
>> the phone and began calling guide dog training schools. Living in
>> North Carolina, it only made sense that he began with schools nearest
>> the east coast.
>>
>> One after another, the schools rejected his plan. A guide dog, they
>> told him, could not handle the kind of stress and terrain he was
>> describing. His plan, they said, was dangerous and irresponsible. They
>> weren't in the business of training dogs for hikers.
>>
>> Then he called Guide Dogs for the Blind. He explained again his love
>> of hiking and his desire to use a guide dog to help him navigate the
> trails.
>> The reaction, a novel one by now to his ears, was one of challenged
>> curiosity. They didn't know if it would work, but they were almost as
>> interested as Trevor to find out.
>>
>>
>> A Match Made in Heaven
>>
>>
>> In October 2012, Trevor Thomas returned home with his new hiking
>> partner, a black Labrador named Tennille. While in training at the
>> Guide Dogs for the Blind school in San Rafael, California, Trevor and
>> Tennille completed the same coursework typical students complete. He
>> learned to command Tennille through town and across streets, to make
>> turns without encountering obstacles, and to locate doorways and stairs.
>>
>> They also hiked trails in the John Muir Wilderness, using the same
>> signature positive reinforcement techniques employed by the school to
>> teach Tennille to alert Trevor to landscape elements needed for his
>> hiking
> safety.
>> Tennille's first significant hike with her new partner was 1,000 miles
>> of the Mountains to Sea Trail, hiking from Clingman's Dome in western
>> North Carolina to Jockey's Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks. It
>> took two and a half months and no one, not even Trevor Thomas, knew
>> for sure whether Tennille could return to guiding him through city
>> work
> after that adventure.
>>
>> She did. On the trail, Tennille carries a backpack with about 3 pounds
>> of her doggie essentials: her bowl, her boots, her Ruffwear, and her
>> favorite elk antler chew toy. Trevor now carries between 38 and 42
>> pounds, including food for both himself and Tennille, a two-person
>> tent, stove, water purification system, and a few pieces of essential
> technology.
>>
>>
>> Trail Preparation
>>
>>
>> Time spent in the back country ranges from one to seven months for
>> Trevor Thomas, and he estimates that he spends one hour of preparation
>> time for each mile on the trail.
>>
>> To prepare, he sits down with his expedition coordinator who has
>> gathered every available guidebook and topographical map of the trail.
>> With excruciating detail, the trail is outlined in writing, noting
>> every possible touchable marker available. A cliff, a boulder field, a
>> road to cross, a stream, or river. That detailed course description is
>> then emailed to Trevor's iPhone and serves as his audio navigation on
>> the
> trail.
>>
>> "If I know I have about 3 miles to go before a designated turn," he
>> explains, I know from time and my own cadence when we've gone about
>> 2.5 miles of that distance. I then begin to echolocate and follow
>> Tennille to identify the touch marker that tells us when to turn."
>>
>> Tennille has alerted him to countless dangers, from cliffs to boulder
>> fields to rattlesnakes. "I'm the big picture guy," he summarizes, "and
>> she is the detail girl."
>>
>> He does not carry GPS equipment. Besides the rapid burning of
>> batteries, he says that much of the terrain he hikes would not be
>> clearly marked by GPS software anyway. Instead, both he and Tennille
>> constantly send Google Earth pictures of where they are back to his
>> expedition coordinator, who can then confirm that they are where they
> expected to be.
>>
>> "I'm really not very tech savvy," Trevor says. He owns every Apple
>> product
>> -- iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, and a MacBook--but says that he
>> doesn't use any of them with any significant level of sophistication.
>>
>> The emailed trail instructions documents can be saved to his phone and
>> thus don't depend on a cellular signal. For emergencies, he carries a
>> satellite phone, which enables him to call anywhere at any time.
>>
>> When not on the trail, Trevor says that Tennille absolutely requires
>> walking at least 10 to 15 miles daily. And he has taught her some
>> pretty amazing city tricks as well.
>>
>> "In the grocery store," he boasts, "she can identify at least 25
>> different products." He says he can direct her to find pharmacy, deli,
>> coffee, wine, bread, and more, and she does each
>> flawlessly--encouraged, of course, with praise and a treat for each
> success.
>>
>>
>> Sponsorships
>>
>>
>> Trevor Thomas says that his future will always include hiking. The
>> former corporate sales representative and law school graduate is now a
>> professional hiker and fulltime ambassador for a host of outdoor and
>> canine products. He and Tennille are sponsored by companies such as
>> Marmot, Big Agnes, Ruffwear, Cliff, Taste of the Wild, Ahnu, and
>> Camelbak, among others. They don't accept sponsorship from any product
> they don't use or fully support.
>>
>> To read more about Trevor Thomas and Tennille or follow their next
>> adventure, visit Trevor's website
>> <http://www.blindhikertrevorthomas.com/About-Trevor.html> .
>>
>> Comment on this article
>> <mailto:lhuffman at afb.net?subject=The%20Hiker%20and%20Tennille:%20Trevo
>> r%20Th
>> omas%20on%20The%20Trail> .
>>
>>
>>
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